AVZ Briefing – London Serious Injury Collision Investigation Inquiry – Police response

20th February 2024

To download a pdf of this briefing click here

Key points

• The Greater London Authority (GLA) Police and Crime Committee recently held their second evidence session into serious injury collision investigation. This briefing summarises the information learned.
• The session focused on the Serious Collision Investigation Unit (SCIU) which investigates fatal and life-threating injury collisions.
• The other 95% of serious injury collisions in London are investigated by borough police and a desk based civilian unit.
• Senior police gave evidence but this focussed on the work of the SCIU.  
• Basic training for borough officers includes minimal coverage of collision investigation and driving offences.
• Police acknowledged gaps and have proposed actions to improve investigation by borough officers, including:

• 1. leaving them with investigation plans. These are for the crashes that the SCIU attends but does not investigate.
• 2. introducing dedicated borough resources with each of the 12 London Super-Boroughs getting an enhanced supervisor and two investigators, based on the practice in Manchester. This would equate to 36 borough officers dedicated to collision investigation covering the 3,600+ reported serious injury collisions each year.

• Whilst these represent good first steps in improving serious injury investigations, AVZ believes much more will be needed to ensure thorough investigations for serious injury collisions.

Background

The Police and Crime Committee’s inquiry into serious injury collision investigation has involved two evidence sessions. The first, held in November 2023, heard evidence from solicitors, support services, victims and campaigners, including Action Vision Zero. This second session was the opportunity for the police to outline current practice for serious injury investigation and to respond to the concerns raised in the first session.

As the title of this briefing indicates, this inquiry covers serious injury collision investigation. In 2022, there were over 3,800 people reported seriously injured on London’s roads, with over half hit whilst they were walking or cycling. Only the most serious (100-150), i.e. life threatening/changing, will have the collision investigated by trained investigators in the SCIU, who are located in the Metropolitan Police Roads and Transport Policing Command (RTPC) and who also investigate fatal collisions. 

Who spoke

Five senior officers gave evidence on behalf of the Metropolitan Police (MPS):

• Commander Kyle Gordon, MPS (National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead on Roads Policing operations)
• Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Cox, OCU Commander, Transformation Programme and NPCC lead for Collision Investigation Programme, MPS
• Ross Morrell, Acting Detective Superintendent Roads and Transport, Serious Collision Investigation Unit, MPS
• Superintendent Dan Card, North East Basic Command Unit, MPS
• Pauline Pateman-West, Head of Met Prosecutions, MPS.

The good

Let’s start with the positive. It was good that:

• This inquiry is happening at all. Do not forget that it is the first time a police and crime committee has looked into serious injury collision investigation.
• Arrival time stats indicated prompt attendance – at least for the most urgent collisions. It is worth pointing out that it was not clear if these response times were for I (immediate urgency) and S (significant urgency) grade collisions, or all I and S grade calls.

• • For I grade calls (immediate urgency) the target arrival time is within 15 minutes; this was met 78% of the time with I grade calls, with a median response time of 10 minutes and 15 seconds.
• • For S grade calls (significant urgency), the 60-minute target time was met 85%, with a median response time of 21 ½ minutes.

• Gaps have been recognised and are beginning to be addressed. This includes the SCIU leaving written investigation plans for borough officers to follow. These are for the collisions the SCIU has attended but deemed not serious enough for them to investigate. The estimated number of crashes this may benefit was not stated but AVZ have concerns that it may be as low as 100.
• More investment is coming. Ross Morrell, SCIU lead, spoke about further improvements they wanted to introduce. Based on the approach taken in Manchester, the MPS wants to introduce “enhanced supervisors” in each of the 12 Super-Boroughs (2-3 boroughs), with two trained collision investigators assigned to each of the enhanced supervisors, working on a two-year rota. When this would happen could not be confirmed, but it was indicated that it would be in place at some point next year.
• Surveys of crash victims could be undertaken. Pauline Pateman-West also spoke of the possibility of extending their victim surveys to crash victims in cases where a charge is laid (the survey covers the prosecution stage). 

Concerns

There was much that came out that was of concern, including:

• Lack of representation from the boroughs. Despite the boroughs doing the vast majority of the at-scene investigation, including identifying witnesses and obtaining CCTV footage, no one from Borough Police involved in collision investigation attended to give evidence. Note: Dan Card was the previous head of Met Roads and Transport Policing Command and recently transferred to borough policing.
• Narrow definition of crime. Those collisions suspected of involving recorded crime stay with the borough police, i.e. crashes where drink driving or dangerous driving may be involved have the follow up investigation conducted by the borough police. But those that are not thought to involve recorded crime, e.g. hit and run or careless driving, are passed on to a desk based civilian unit, with an inevitable time lag involved in the transfer of the case.
• Lack of clarity re investigating serious and slight injury collisions. Without the borough present, it was difficult to understand how investigations for serious injury collisions differed from slight injury collisions. This was a major omission with several questions focused on this.
• Lack of capacity. The police outlined the number of vacancies for the SCIU, which was described as being standard for the MPS. No statistics were given for vacancies in boroughs.
• Lack of training. Details were given on the collision investigation training provided to new officers in basic training. This was eight hours in the “non-crime” session and included: 

• 22 minutes on driving offences
• 20 minutes on vehicle offences
• 20 minutes on drink/drug driving.

That seems very little time, especially on driving offences which would cover careless driving, dangerous driving, use of mobile phone, seat belt offences and disqualified driving. We doubt any of this training covers the MPS’ commitment to Vision Zero or the national promotion of active travel, including the recent Highway Code changes.

Summary

This session highlighted the need for this inquiry. Injury collision investigation in London is complex with different police units involved. The vast majority of serious injury collisions are investigated initially by borough police officers who, as we have seen, undertake minimal training. Whilst this is where most of the problems with serious collision investigation lie, the evidence session was primarily focussed on work of the Serious Collisions Investigation Unit.

Londoners deserve an improved service. Serious injury collision investigation deserves greater priority, including with overall accountability and transparency. This should also include widening the definition of crime and the priority allocated to hit and run collisions and those that may involve careless driving. These should be treated as crimes, even if the national crime recording system does not agree, and investigated by officers with more training and more powers.

Note: This blog was updated on 10 March to reflect that Superintendent Dan Card is currently a borough officer.